Comp 231

[Gwarl]

Yes Congrats sideways for being the best 2.9.3 player of the past month.

What shall we play next? Instant coffee?

[ShadowTechnology]

Yes Congrats sideways for being the best 2.9.3 player of the past month.

What shall we play next? Instant coffee?

Sure! A thousand and one ways to find instant Glory...
...and then crash and burn against a hopelessly overpowered quest monster.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[ShadowTechnology]

Sure! A thousand and one ways to find instant Glory...
...and then crash and burn against a hopelessly overpowered quest monster.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Seriously, this could be fun. A suggestion for Gwarl to consider:
*FrogComposband 7.1. liquorice, Instant Coffee Mode.
*Scored and ranked in the usual way.
*Adjust options any way you like.
*Create your own character (normal or monster)
Here's the fun part...
*All aspects of the character must be generated RANDOMLY, using the "random" option whenever available. Not just race/class/personality but also magic realms, chaos patron, and everything else that allows it.
* On the honor system, stay random.
* Please play and post even the hopelessly strange ones, such as Sexy Ninja, Craven Berserker, or Sprite Mauler.

Instant coffee mode is very fast, whether you survive or not. You are forced from one quest to another until you die (or win). There's no option to play slowly and cautiously. I expect a record number of entries on the scoreboard, mostly in red. Maybe a little green at the top.

Sound like a fun challenge?

[DavidMedley]

You're not really selling it, Shadow

[wobbly]

Sexy ninja is actually pretty interesting to play. They still don't track or target you properly with Ag.

[ShadowTechnology]

You're not really selling it, Shadow

Which part needs fixing David, the random characters or the Instant Coffee mode?

[Grotug]

I actually had an idea for the next competition that I for some reason forgot to message about earlier. So I made a post not too long about two insane launchers I found. I thought it might be fun to have a competition in 4.2.0 where you can play any character/combo you want and you get to start with both said launchers. Whoever wins the game in fewest number of turns is declared winner. Would also be fun for people to unofficially compete to see who could win in the shortest amount of real time (to be done as a side quest-not part of the official competition). Games should be pretty quick. Could also implement a 5 or 10 level skip to move things along.

Basically it can just be a quick competition to play while we come up with a proper competition.

Launcher #1:

the Long Bow of Idrimon (x6) (+13,+29) <+3> (charging)
Dropped by Dwar, Dog Lord of Waw at 4500 feet (level 90)

+3 shooting power.
Branded with cold.
Provides resistance to acid, fire, cold.
Provides protection from fear.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Slows your metabolism. Sustains your life force.

When activated, it puts you in a berserker rage for d50+50 turns.
Takes 295 to 360 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 99.0%

Launcher #2:

the Heavy Crossbow of Niria (x7) (+6,+27) <+3>
Dropped by Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer at 4500 feet (level 90)

+3 shooting power.
Provides resistance to lightning, light.
Provides protection from confusion.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Sustains intelligence.
Prevents paralysis.

When activated, it creates a frost ball with damage 50.
Takes 234 to 259 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 94.5%

[DavidMedley]

Which part needs fixing David, the random characters or the Instant Coffee mode?

Just the way you are describing it. Hopelessly overpowered bosses, so much of your fate depending on the opening rolls, forced to continue hopelessly strange characters. Keep hope alive, man!

[Estie]

Surely the bow is superor to the crossbow in every way ?

[Voovus]

How about vanilla, with a character who starts off wearing a permanently cursed item (and unbreakable with remove curse) that has "no teleport" on it?

In other words, no instant escapes. Give it +10 Con if you're feeling generous.

[LordRotharoth]

That's not a bad idea

[Grotug]

How about vanilla, with a character who starts off wearing a permanently cursed item (and unbreakable with remove curse) that has "no teleport" on it?

In other words, no instant escapes. Give it +10 Con if you're feeling generous.

I like the idea of no escapes and you start with one of these launchers.

@Estie: well, not every way. The crossbow provides free action which is very key if you want to blast downward to DL40s with reckless abandon (as I would be doing). Personally, I would start with the crossbow and switch to the longbow as soon as I got Free Action. Actually, I'd probably just take the bow everytime.

I figure giving both is nice in the event you find some really good bolts. It's nice to have options.

[ShadowTechnology]

I like the idea of no escapes and you start with one of these launchers.

@Estie: well, not every way. The crossbow provides free action which is very key if you want to blast downward to DL40s with reckless abandon (as I would be doing). Personally, I would start with the crossbow and switch to the longbow as soon as I got Free Action. Actually, I'd probably just take the bow everytime.

I figure giving both is nice in the event you find some really good bolts. It's nice to have options.

I don't want to speak for Gwarl, but he said in another thread in this forum, just 5 weeks ago:
"If we use starting savefiles then people can't participate on angband live."
So the days of using characters that start with special gifts are over, at least for now.

So, in the recent past, these contest have had us generating our own non-identical characters within certain parameters (race, class, options, etc). So let's work with that. The parameters can by very restrictive (so that everyone starts with "almost" the same character) or they can be wide open.

Personally I like Gwarl's Instant Coffee idea. I've been playing it for a few weeks and find it quite addictive. You can play out several characters in one evening session. Once you do your initial shopping you typically get to CL5 in 5 minutes and CL15 in 15 minutes. After that the game continues at a super rapid rate, but the quest levels get progressively harder. One guy made to to CL50, but was still several quests levels away from Oberon when he got his ass kicked.

Nothing wrong with a challenging contest, and nothing wrong with having a contest winner without having a game winner. Especially when there's time to take dozens of shots on goal. But it is possible to win the game in Instant Coffee mode. There are examples on the ladder.

The best thing about these contests in my opinion is not the contest itself, but the opportunity to explore, as a groups, new variants and features like Instant Coffee. Besides, it's fun to watch yourself level up several times in the course of a single melee bout.

[Thraalbee]

A human ninja is a good choice for instant coffe. Anything with wraithform also nice. Pure brawler is too dependent on luck imo.

[Gwarl]

Let's go even further. Spectre ninja. Lucky spectre ninja.